Bowtech Carbon Icon Review

I was out of bow hunting for a few years and was looking for a bow to get back into it. I wanted duel cam, 85% let off, and for IBO to be on the faster side. After looking and looking I found this bow at a heck of a price so I gave it a try. With limb savers and limb savers string dampeners it's quite as can be. Putting a front and rear stabilizer on it made a huge difference the bow just balances perfect. Adding a Amazon roller guard made it even smoother. Plus this bow is just as fast as 90% of bows on the market. I thought I was missing something with this bow being so cheap so I bought a matthews vertix thinking I was upgrading and man was I disappointed. Matthews is a 1100$ bow bowtech carbon icon is a 600$ and the carbon icon out shoots vertix by far.i seen all the hype about how smooth, quiet, and dead in hand vertix was well the carbon icon beats it in both categories by far plus way lighter. Don't get me wrong vertix is a great bow but it just surprised me how well the older cheaper carbon icon did against it for half the money. You can't beat this bow without losing some where.

Been using the bow for deer hunting have taken 3 deer in three years shooting grim reaper 100 grain broadheads with 400 carbons set at 56 lbs pass throughs on all of them bow requires little tuning year to year love the weight

I love almost everything about this bow. It is super light but still feels really well balanced in your hands. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new bow and can’t spend $1000+ in doing so. I haven’t taken it out in the woods yet, but I can’t wait until archery season starts!

Overall i bought this bow to walk the bush with and it does that job perfectly i feel if your somebody hunting from a stand you would prefer something else even tho this will still do a great job this bow is gonna be favourited by mobile hunters walking the bush chasing game or shooting birds my friends still cant believe my bow with a full quiver of arrows is lighter than their gun

I bought the bow at a pawn shop for little money and replaced the 50 lb limbs with 70 lb limbs for $125. It is so easy to hold on target. My only problem is the noise at the shot. I have a whisker biscuit on the bow at the moment, but have ordered a QAD UltraRest. I'm hoping that will quiet the bow.I did not like the brush rest that came on it. I'm 68 years old so appreciate the lightness of the bow.

This bow had plenty of power to put a rage extreme through a mature buck's shoulder blade for a complete pass through, and a short trail of 25 yards from a 40 yard shot.

I am strong enough not to notice the difference between the comfort and performance setting, so rather than adjusting sites on a regular basis, I just site in with the performance setting and leave it.

This is the perfect setup above the economy level, and not so many features that could create problems in the brush.

3 deer, two seasons. No problem. Never any issues. Had to replace the factory rest with a drop away.
Shooting 390 grain arrow at 62 pounds and around 245 fps not sure if accurate on this. Shot very well from day one and required little adjustment

2 deer in 2 seasons. 2 shots. I am very happy with my purchase. I did however change the sights as I wear glasses and a sight with brighter pins helped a lot. There's really nothing wrong with the factory sights,it's just my eyes. I replaced the rest as the brushes began to wear The drop away rest I installed works great and do definitely recommend one. Speed is of no concern for me and is not the utmost on my priorities. This bow is shooting about 255 or 260 In around there. For thousands of years natives took game with bows that were a fraction of the speed. I like a heavy arrow and helical fletch as my hunting encounter could be anything from a deer to elk to moose or bear. I've heard that there are even a few pigs around so I like to straddle the fence on weight and performance. Overal I will and do promote this model of bow.

I bought this bow a couple months back and I am a true fan of Bowtech now. I upgraded the rest to a QAD drop away, The sight upgraded to a 3 pin Trophy Ridge hunting sight, and got a Bee Stinger 10" Hunter extreme stabilizer. I have no issues whatsoever hitting x's all day long, the comfortable draw, even at the 70lbs makes it easy to practice for extended periods, and I feel quite confident to take it hunting anything that can be found in the sights. Side note for those considering a stabilizer of any sort-The Bee Stinger 10" hunter extreme was the best decision I ever made to tighten up my groups beyond 20yds. At 60yds, I am back to a 3-4" group since adding this stabilizer. Buy one right now. Seriously.

I have no complaints about this bow at all. Bowtech has done a great job on this package. Would I purchase another? Yes. The flip disc changed over to performance caused my arrows to impact about 3 inches higher consistently out to 40 yards.
I realize the RAK system is a balance of price point and component quality however I did eventually change the rest to the redline drop away and have been completely satisfied with this setup. Just a personal observation. As is with everything in life,freedom of choice is everything. You don't need to spend a fortune on a bow when all one requires is in a tidy package like this Carbon Icon. It's middle of the road in the technical stuff but it is a very forgiving design and does offer performance options for some more demanding individuals.
There are those who will retort with the virtues of other makes and models about some small gains or whatnot and that's fine. At the end of the day I encourage people to at least try this bow. I haven't yet found anyone who can find a negative aspect that's worthwhile arguing about.
I took 2 whitetail deer with this bow last fall. In both cases none of the other deer were spooked very badly by the noise of the shot. They milled around nervously wondering what just happened to their buddy. Just trotted off and fell over.

I'm shooting a 60 pound Icon equipped with a Ripcord Code Red rest and a Spot Hogg Seven Deadly pins sight. My five arrow groups have improved dramatically from what I was able to do with the Destroyer 350. The last two 40-yard five arrow groups were 3 1/4" and 2 3/4". (I'm just an old bow hunter and don't shoot competitively.) I find with the Carbon Icon I can follow the flight of my arrow due to the lack of hand shock. This has led to much better "follow-through" habits in my shooting form. I have the Carbon Icon set on the "Performance" setting and I have a 28" draw and shoot 360 grain arrows. My chrono reads right at 290 fps, which is about 15 fps slower than my Destroyer registered at the same 60# draw weight using the same arrows.

This bow is awsome,the features this bow has for the price is amazing. This bow is two bows in one with the flip disc. I had bypass heart surgery, so the comfort setting is great for me until I can get myself built back up then may flip to the more aggressive setting. It shoots really smooth other than a small vibtation, but that's to be expected for such a light bow.I bought the RAK package which comes with pretty decent accessories but with a little better stabilizer I'm sure will solve that problem. So to sum it all up, this is a great bow and would recommend it to any level of shooter.

Easy to shoot and handle. I removed the stabilizer and use iust a wrist strap. Bought with package and swaped out my 5 pin lighted sight wjth the supplied 3 pin sight. Octane rest works pefextly, had some wear issues with my old bow using WB rest. No vane contact and very quiet bow Dealer set up was fast and effective paper tuned basically out of the box. Took bow to range and was shootng well with a few minor sight adjustments.

For shooters who prefer carbon over aluminum, this is the go to budget bow, at 649.99 for bare bow and 749.99 for rak equipped, this carbon rocks! got this for my hunting bow for 860.00 with arrows, tuning and a new release. I plan to in a couple months upgrade the sight and rest even though it comes with a good package.